How to clone a method code in Python?

With the help of methodName.__code__.replace() method, we can clone the code of builtin method as well as any other defined method and we can also fix the positional only arguments in any of the cloned method code by using methodName.__code__.replace() method.

Syntax : methodName.__code__.replace() Return : Return the object of new cloned method with few positional only arguments.

Note : To run the programs given below you have to install the latest version of Python i.e. Python 3.8.2 otherwise it will show the error like this.

AttributeError: ‘code’ object has no attribute ‘replace’.

Example #1 : In this example we can see that by using methodName.__code__.replace() method, we are able to clone the code of builtin methods as well as any defined method with the help of this method. Python3

from statistics import median
# Using methodName.__code__.replace() method
median.__code__ = median.__code__.replace(co_posonlyargcount = 1)
print(median([1, 2, 3]))

Output :

2

Example #2 : Python3

def multiply(a, b):
    return a * b
# Using methodName.__code__.replace(co_posonlyargcount = 1) method
multiply.__code__ = multiply.__code__.replace(co_posonlyargcount = 2)
print(multiply(5, 6))

Output :

30